A large (for us!) group of nine club members braved the cold to paddle the Wye from Newbridge to Builth, a gentle 7-mile trip of mostly grade 1 rapids with a few nice surf waves to play on the way. The excitement ramped up a notch for the grade 3 Builth Rocks rapid just before the end, the second drop of which claimed three swimmers and kept Dave and Pete on their toes chasing boats. It was great to welcome a couple of ‘new’ white water paddlers Huw and Steve H as well as stalwarts Anne, Chris, Sam C and Sam H; while Steve R was able to have an easy day as Pete put his river leading skills into action. Well done all!
Our next ‘harder’ trip is scheduled for the Wye (upstream of Rhayader) on Sun 12 Feb and our next ‘easier’ trip to one of our less-used grade 2 rivers on Sat 25 Feb – subject to river conditions as usual.
Trip information & 2023 statistics to date:
- 22 Jan 2023, River Wye Newbridge to Builth Wells, 12km
- Low/medium water (1.45m on Builth Wells gauge)
- 9 kayakers: Anne, Chris, Dave, Huw, Pete, Sam C, Sam H, Steve H, Steve R
- 4 swims (Anne, Sam H, Steve H x 2), 2 rolls (Pete)
| Paddler | No of trips | No of Swims | No of Rolls |
| Anne | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Chris | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Dave | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Huw | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Pete | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| Sam C | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Sam H | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Steve H | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Steve R | 3 | 0 | 0 |
A few photos of the day (c/o Sam H) below; and some videos of everyone making the FIRST drop at Builth Rocks look easy…!
